That was the message McCracken County Sheriff Jon Hayden wanted to make clear at a fiscal court budget workshop this week when he explained the department's struggle to hire and retain sufficient manpower due to a lack of adequate funding.

Hayden said the sheriff's department has 18 patrol deputies, at least nine of whom are planning to leave in the next 18 months, either to retire or seek employment at another agency.

Those losses, he said, will create a serious problem for a department already stretched too thin.

"This is something that we're not going to be able to recover from," he said. "And there would definitely be a period of time when we would not be able to provide the level of service that we've been providing."

Hayden said pay disparity is the biggest reason for the inability to keep or recruit officers.

A starting patrol deputy, Hayden said, makes an average of $33,000 a year. By comparison, starting salary for a Paducah police officer is $42,182, which is more than the most senior sheriff's road deputies make.

"Our officers are grossly underpaid in comparison to the departments that we compete with for manpower and retention," Hayden said.

"There has been a huge deficit over the years, and that deficit is increasing. It has gotten to the point where we cannot retain officers here. This is a busy county, and research has shown we're one of the busiest counties in the state, and our deputies aren't making as much money as some of the other departments in our area."

That disparity is also apparent in the city and county budgets for public safety, Hayden said. According to his research, Hayden said Paducah allocates 24 percent of its general fund budget to pay the salaries of city police officers. By comparison, Hayden said, the county budgets a little more than 9 percent of its general fund to pay its officers.

Low pay is not the only issue, Hayden said. Manpower shortages present a safety issue for law enforcement officers and the county's citizens. As an example, Hayden cited an incident Monday night when a deputy attempted to make a traffic stop, and the driver fled on foot.

Hayden said the deputy, Brock Martin, chased the subject, ultimately getting into an altercation with the man. The fight lasted more than six minutes, Hayden said, and none of the other deputies on patrol that night were close enough to back up Martin.

"Thank goodness the Paducah Police Department was able to respond and back up that deputy," he said. "We didn't have deputies close enough to offer that deputy any assistance whatsoever. And that's something that happens to our officers multiple times a week. It's not safe. It's not safe for the officer, it's not safe for the suspect, it's not safe for the citizens of this county."

"Why would someone want to continually put on this uniform, get in that patrol car and put themselves at risk when they don't have to?" he continued. "Why would they do that when there are other agencies they can go to and make a whole lot more money and be a lot safer?"

Judge-Executive Bob Leeper said he sympathizes with the department's situation.

"The sheriff's presentation was very enlightening," he said. "We recognize at this point, after the sheriff's presentation, that we have a problem. Nobody has yet presented a solution to the problem. Obviously it's more money, but you don't want to just throw more money at it without determining how to use that money in order to get the best result."

At this stage, Leeper said, the county's budget is a work in progress.

"I think we're all sympathetic to the situation," he said. "We're going to look at the revenues that we have and determine how to deal with it with the funds we've got available."